AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) The new, more social, Tiger Woods was only occasionally seen Wednesday as he made his way around the front nine of Augusta National in the final tune up for a Masters green jacket that suddenly seems very much in reach.

There weren’t many trips down memory lane with playing partner Fred Couples and no long conversations with the firefighter from Massachusetts, who had to look up occasionally at the gray skies and wonder what bolt of lightning would strike him next as he played alongside the greatest golfer of his time.

It was Woods as he might have been 10 years ago, deep in concentration and fixating so much on the smallest details that he walked off a section of the sixth green to measure just which spot he needed to land his ball on when play finally begins for real.

Article continues below …

Woods had his game face on, and for his legions of fans that’s probably a good thing. He had a few smiles with Couples, but if the next smile out of him comes when he’s ..

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) Blame it on a generation that thinks nothing was ever as great as what just happened.

Maybe it was a tough winter, and nothing melts frigid memories like the sight of azaleas, dogwoods and Rae’s Creek. It sure didn’t hurt that all the best players, as young as 23-year-old Jon Rahm and ancient as 47-year-old Phil Mickelson, are winning tournaments and hitting their stride.

The competition is so steep that four players have a chance to be No. 1 in the world.

Article continues below …

”This is my 42nd Masters,” club chairman Fred Ridley said Wednesday. ”I have never been a part of this week where there’s been any more excitement.”

But the real reason for all the talk that this Masters might be the best ever still comes down to one guy: Tiger Woods.

In San Diego and Los Angeles, in Tampa and Orlando, fans flocked by the thousands when Woods returned to competition after a fourth back surgery and suddenly looked very much like a 14-time major champion capable of re..

We love the Par-3 Contest for lots of reasons. The cute kids caddieing for their fathers or grandfathers. Wives and girlfriends enjoying themselves alongside their loved ones. Legends of the game like Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson competing alongside the young stars of the day. It's one of the best parts of Masters Week.
One of the underrated parts, perhaps, are the trick shots that pros have been known to attempt during the Contest. We saw Nick Faldo hit a tremendous putt a couple years back. And this year, we had something we've certainly never seen before—Bubba Watson hitting a crazy putt … with a wedge. Huh?
You really need to see it to appreciate it. We know Bubba is highly skilled with all clubs in the bag. But this was straight ridiculous.
https://twitter.com/CBSSports/status/981613512689627143
RELATED: Bubba Watson is excited for Augusta, but there's another big event on his mind
Bubba, always an entertainer. Of course, he did this while playing with Wes Bryan, ..

Kevin C. CoxAUGUSTA, Ga. — Because golfers under age 10 for the most part stay off Twitter, and Las Vegas sports books presumably aren’t exploiting the sentiments of underage gamblers, it’s hard to know where our children’s allegiances lie for the 2018 Masters. To find out, Golf Digest asked TGA Premier Junior Golf, a franchise-model company that operates golf-based curriculums within elementary schools and community centers, to run a simple poll.
Despite spring break and a few other complications, TGA coaches across the country were able to ask 404 children, ages 5-9, the obvious question: “Who do you want to win this year’s Masters?” Here are the results:
Bubba Watson, 2 votes
Rory McIlroy, 3
Dustin Johnson, 12
Justin Thomas, 14
Rickie Fowler, 35
Phil Mickelson, 40
Jordan Spieth, 79
Tiger Woods, 219
“I couldn’t believe all the kids that voted for Tiger Woods, considering they were all born after he won his last major,” said Dave Robinson, the franchise owner of TGA of Southwest Michi..

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) It sounds like the final hole at Amen Corner is going to get a little longer.

At least one golfer says hallelujah.

Augusta National Chairman Fred Ridley hinted Wednesday that the par-5 13th, a 510-yard hole known as Azalea, could be super-sized down the road.

Article continues below …

”There’s a great quote from Bobby Jones dealing specifically with the 13th hole, which has been lengthened over time, and he said the decision to go for the green in two should be a momentous one,” Ridley said during his pre-Masters news conference. ”And I would have to say that our observations of these great players hitting middle, and even short irons, into that hole is not a momentous decision.”

Jordan Spieth, the 2015 Masters champion, would welcome the extra yardage.

”I would hope it would be lengthened, personally, to take away certain players being able to cut off a lot of the hole and require pretty much everyone to hit it around the same line,” he said.

Spieth added th..

The most important place in golf might be the large oak tree outside the Augusta National clubhouse. Nearby, they also play a golf tournament

Ridley suggests golf's organizations need to think beyond their own interests to solve the distance question

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) Vandini Sharma of Chandigarh, India, is the 16-year-old sister of Shubhankar Sharma, who makes his debut at the Masters this week. Her short stories have won literary awards. She has agreed to write a first-person account of her experience at the Masters for The Associated Press.

—

When reporters and all the new people who’ve recently entered our world ask my brother what it felt like to make the Masters at 21, Shubhankar gently shrugged, and said it wasn’t completely unexpected. After years of hard work and the magical last four months that have flown by, the sun is beginning to dawn on our journey’s horizons.

Article continues below …

My first view of the Masters popped up like a jack-in the-box. I felt struck out of the blue. This was the first golf tournament I’d known as a toddler and memorized with care.

Its reputation was fortified by years of sleepless memories. My father and brother would sit rooted for hours, exhilarated and enthralled, before the bla..

Rumors about a third Bill and Ted movie have been bubbling around pretty much since the end of the second Bill and Ted movie, which you and your formerly athletic and currently drooping musculature will be stunned to realize occurred in 1991. NINETEEN NINETY-ONE, GRANDPA. That is very close to knocking on THIRTY YEARS AGO. You know what’s weird is Googling facts about a Bill and Ted movie and being reminded of your own mortality. Wasn’t expecting that.
Anyway, Bill and Ted! Buzz for a third movie is picking up again, at least according to the over-caffeinated super-tweeting members of The Internet, which makes its collective clothes damp and heavy every time two cast members from a ‘90s show converge for any activity at all. (JAMES VAN DER BEEK AND KATIE HOLMES SPOTTED IN SAME GAP FOR KIDS, DAWSON’S CREEK REUNION IS A 100% LOCK AND WE ARE CRYING)
Earlier this week, Entertainment Weekly, which is basically 80% just pictures of cast reunions and anecdotes about alternate endings at this ..

Life is good, if not super busy, for Sergio Garcia. The Spaniard returns to Augusta National this week not only as the defending champion, having won his coveted first major last year, but he's now a father—with his wife, Angela, giving birth to the couple's daughter, Azalea, less than a month ago.
With his daughter sharing the name of Augusta National's 13th hole, Azalea, Sergio even took his entire family—including the newborn, Azalea—out to the most famous par 5 in the world. Talk about an emotional moment.
Now, it appears, Sergio has another ode to his daughter in store for this week. The 38-year-old shared a photo of a new putter cover designed
https://twitter.com/TheSergioGarcia/status/981570325942099968
RELATED: Masters 2018: The New Sergio Garcia
We'll see if Baby Garcia makes her way to the Par-3 Contest that will be contested Wednesday afternoon. That might make the pre-tournament build-up perfect. And how lucky is that baby? You're less than two mont..